Château de la Flocellière, Medieval castle in La Flocellière, France.
Château de la Flocellière is a castle in Sèvremont featuring a medieval keep and a Louis XIII pavilion set within extensive grounds. The park contains mature trees, formal gardens, and water features spread across the property.
A charter of 28 October 1090 names David as lord of La Flocellière, whose line held the fief until the late 13th century. The fortress was enlarged in the 13th century and its keep in the 14th; in 1301 the seigneury passed to the Surgères de La Bougueraigne. In January 1794 the colonnes infernales of General Grignon burned and blew up the castle during the Vendée war, leaving only the keep standing. The baron Alquier had Arsène Charrier rebuild it in Neo-Renaissance style between 1879 and 1881.
The seigneurie's name passed through the Surgères, Hamon and Maillé-Brézé families: Robinette Hamon married Claude de Maillé-Brézé in 1567, bringing La Flocellière and Cerizay to that house. In 1616 Jacques de Maillé married Elisabeth Hamilton, a young Scotswoman he had taken from the court of Louis XIII; in 1617 the couple had a Carmelite convent built near the castle, linked to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
The castle stands at La Flocellière, in the commune of Sèvremont, near Les Herbiers and the Puy du Fou. Visitors enter through the stone gateway with the round archway and carved coat of arms; the ruined fort and the 17th-century house stand side by side beyond it. The keep is the only part that survived the 1794 fire.
The keep is the only part that survived the fire set by General Grignon's infernal columns in January 1794, during the Vendée war. Around 1938 a room held a rare travelling bed fully upholstered in fabric, presented as that of Regent Philippe d'Orléans. Around 1970 the property housed a "séminaire des vocations tardives".
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